Exceptional Jedi:Jedova & Degu: Mastermind
by WindySilver
Summary: 85 BBY. Jedova Wang, with his Padawan Degu Odg, is sent by the Jedi High Council to an unofficial mission to look for Jedova's former Padawan, Lucian Dailkor, who has disappeared. As Degu is caught from hiding something important from his Master, their bond crumbles. How can they fend off the threat of Hopeakuu's local thugs now and find Lucian?
1. Chapter 1

_85 BBY, Jaminere, Outer Rim Territories_

Degu looked around himself. He saw some factories among the capital city's skyline. He had no idea why his Master had brought him there.  
"Master? When will you tell me what we're supposed to do here?" he asked.  
"Not yet," Jedova answered and looked around himself.

Degu sighed. This was the seventh time his Master gave the same answer. It was frustrating to not know what they were supposed to do.  
"Trust me, Padawan," Jedova said.  
"I do but I'd like to know what we're doing here," Degu said as he tried to keep his steps along with the slow pace of his Master.  
"You'll find out soon enough," Jedova noted.  
"You mean if you find what you are looking for, right?" Degu asked doubtingly.  
"Excuse me, Padawan," Jedova said partly absent-mindedly. He did so always when his Padawan said something they should not have.  
"Sorry, Master," Degu said. "I'm just getting frustrated with roaming around the city for a reason I don't know."

He turned to look to the other side of the street. Then he suddenly stopped, eyes widening at the sight.  
"What's wrong, Degu?" Jedova asked, stopping too.  
"Look there, at that table. That café, 'Dell Hound'," Degu said, nodding to where he was looking at. "That's the man who stunned you back on Ec Pand two years ago."  
"Are you sure?" Jedova asked. He had not seen the man's face back on Ec Pand.  
"It's him," Degu said. "If he is here it must mean that Hopeakuu is here."  
"Let's continue. It's the best to not attract their attention," Jedova said, putting his hand on Degu's shoulder. Degu tore his gaze away from the criminal, who seemingly had gotten even uglier than he had been back on Ec Pand, and followed his Master.  
"Hey look! That's the Padawan who let us take his Master!" the criminal shouted as he suddenly noticed the two Jedi. Degu became stiff and felt the urge to draw his lightsaber.  
"They are trying to provoke you. Don't give into it, Padawan," Jedova advised quietly. Degu took a deep breath.  
"I just can't forget how they forced me to let them take you like that," he hissed.  
"Don't cling to the past. You and I both have learned from that experience," Jedova said.

Degu nodded. The men of Hopeakuu did not follow them this time but he felt that they would come for them and cause trouble to them. At least that was what his instincts told. The Force stayed quiet about those criminals; Degu was no seer nor a person who was that talented with the Unifying Force anyway.

Then it seemed that Jedova had found what he had been looking for. They went into a rather grubby canteen.  
"Stay very close to me, don't talk if not necessary and not to anyone else than me, and avoid bumping into others. We don't need trouble," Jedova told.  
"Understood, Master," Degu said earnestly, but inside he felt a strong doubt. What in the name of the Force would any Jedi want from this place? They were supposed to stay away from places like these; it was no good for their reputation, or so they were told. Not that Degu stayed away from them when he looked for criminals, but overall this was shady, not where they should have been, not at least without a good reason.

Degu paid attention to his surroundings as he stayed close to his Master. He wanted to jokingly wonder why Jedova usually got into trouble as he went to places like this one, but he knew that he could say it once they had gotten out of the shady canteen. He noticed that Jedova was on his way to the bar counter. Degu had bad feeling about this, yet he followed his Master.

"Whaddaya want?" asked the bartender.  
"Where's Aunauslale?" Jedova asked.  
"Who's askin'?" the bartender asked.

Degu dodged a rough-looking man who trudged right next to them. Then he noticed that it was the goon from earlier. They looked into each other's eyes and the goon smiled in a malicious way. His teeth were in a condition even worse than that of the last time.

The rest of the Hopeakuu's group gathered around them.  
"An ally," Jedova answered to the bartender, ignoring the criminals around him.  
 _Master, we should get out of here,_ Degu said to his Master through the Force.  
 _Just a small moment, Padawan. We're leaving soon,_ Jedova answered calmly.  
"He's been dead for a coupla years. If ya won't order anythin', scram now!" the bartender answered.  
"I understand. Thank you," Jedova said, stood up and left. He went past the criminals of Hopeakuu and Degu followed. The criminals laughed at them as they went.  
"Aunauslale owed me some credits! He never paid! So I killed him!" said the criminal who had come next to them. Jedova acted like he had not even heard him.

But as he got out to the clear air of the streets, he sighed.  
"This will make things more complicated," he mumbled.  
"What things?" Degu asked.  
"Let's go to the guesthouse. I'll explain everything there," Jedova said. Now, after facing those criminals who had done lots of harm during his time as a Padawan, Degu was not glad to find out Jedova's reason to come here anymore. But the reason had better be a very good one for the danger they were getting in now with Hopeakuu, for they would not back away from here if those criminals were there too.

As they got back to the guesthouse and went to their room, Jedova started to tell, "Almost a decade ago, back when Lucian Dailkor was under my tutelage, she had an affair with a man named Aunauslale. Or that's the name I learned to know him by. We were on a mission here which took longer than had been expected when the Council had sent us. And when I ended up finding out about this affair, I put a stop to it. I started to remind Lucian daily about the facts that Jedi are forbidden to have attachments, let alone such relationships. It tore us apart. And we never recuperated from it."  
"What about it?" Degu asked. He knew that what had happened in the past was not the reason for Jedova Wang to come looking for this man.  
"Lucian disappeared about a month ago. Her last known location is Jaminere system. It is not official, but the Council asked my help on finding her, since I was her Master once," Jedova explained. "But that incident broke our bond and I can't sense her anymore. That's why the only way to find out anything is to come to this system and look for clues."  
"And you thought about Aunauslale," Degu deduced. Jedova nodded.  
"I suspected that she could've come to look for him," he said. "But since he's dead, the track is lost. I'm afraid that Lucian has left to her own way alone, as she started to despise the Order near her Trials, even though she stayed as a Jedi even after passing them. I... guess she knew no other place to go to..."

Degu was very familiar with the misfortunes of his Master who preferred to treat them with humor. The boy liked to make jokes and friendly teasing about them, but this case was far too serious for that. Therefore, he stayed silent.  
"Listen, Degu, there is something I want you to be honest about," Jedova said, his serious tone now a bit sharper. "You've become jumpy about Hopeakuu during the last months. Why?"

Degu startled. _No, not this!_ he wanted to scream out.  
"I-It's just what happened back on Ec Pand. And they've been causing a lot of trouble. And they're here! I fear that they try to kidnap you again and I can't stop them on that! I... I can't bear seeing it happen again!" Degu explained hastily. He felt lucky in some way to have something known to hide behind to.

The truth, however, was that seven months ago, during his seemingly never-ending quest to find information about his father, he had found out a heinous fact about his father: he belonged to Hopeakuu.

Now he knew that any criminal of Hopeakuu he met could be the one who had sired him and then left his mother alone with him. He had kept it as a secret from his Master for these months, but now he felt like he was finally getting caught from concealing the truth from his Master.

He felt like that because Jedova's gaze pierced into his eyes in such a stern way that it was very difficult for him to look back.  
"That is not the foremost reason," Jedova said to him. Degu's hands formed shaking fists. _Busted!_

Degu exhaled and lowered his gaze. When he started doing so, he thought that it would be easier to look at the bland floor, but the sight of Jedova's piercing gaze stayed. The Jedi Master did not turn his eyes away from his Padawan.  
"You have been lying to me," he said quietly, feeling very disappointed in his Padawan whom he had trusted.  
"No! Not lying!" Degu exclaimed, lifting his head quickly to look back into his Master's eyes. "I just... haven't told the truth. But I haven't lied, I swear!"

Jedova knew how it felt to lose trust in someone. Back the last time on Jaminere he had learned that it felt the worst when it concerned his Padawan. He had lost his trust in Lucian. Now it happened again, in the very same city, as he lost his trust in Degu.

He had known that he should not bring his Padawan with him there. Yet he had not stayed firm on the decision to leave Degu to Coruscant. He could see the desperateness in the young man's eyes. The desperateness to prove his Master that he had not lied.

Before this Jedova would have wanted to hear the truth. But now he did not want to hear anything from the boy he had been training for six years. He turned his back on him and said nothing at all anymore.  
"M-Master..." Degu stuttered, shaking. It felt like their strong bond had suddenly snapped like a dry and dead branch in a fleeting moment without any voice in the Force.

Jedova ignored the Padawan's horror. Degu approached him carefully and put his hand on his shoulder to get any kind of a connection to the Master. Jedova kept ignoring the young man.  
"Master, I am truly sorry," Degu apologized. "I never meant to offend you."

The more merciful half of Jedova wanted to ask why Degu had not told him. But the less merciful half, the half which usually took the offense the worst, wanted to stay silent and keep ignoring. Padawans are forbidden to conceal the truth from their Master. Degu's case would not possibly be as outrageous as Lucian's, but they both hurt Jedova very badly.

"I want to be alone for a while," Jedova announced. He needed to get out from within four walls and have some fresh air. Without waiting for an answer from his Padawan, he walked out, leaving the devastated young man standing in the middle of the small room.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	2. Chapter 2

The air started to get cold; the sun was setting. Jedova walked to a quiet park which had been his favorite there back a decade ago. Now it had been abandoned as its caretakers had died and no one had bothered to take their place. Flower bushes which had once been flourishing and well-kept were now unruly. Firm benches had rotted and their paint had mostly peeled off. Now the grass reached higher than Jedova's knees as it had once felt good against bare feet.

Decadence had reached the park just like it had reached the bond between Jedova and his two last Padawans. For the time being everything was well with his first Padawan, Sören, but Jedova knew now from his experiences that something was bound to happen between them. Something which would tear them apart forever.

Lucian had been difficult from the beginning. Jedova had never told it to her aloud, but he had noticed right when he had asked Lucian to be his Padawan that the girl had not been glad about the idea of him training her. It was not surprising because the information about how he had stumbled a lot back when training Sören had spread well. The training methods he chose to use were very different from those used by his own Master, Xurego Odyrogo, and thus quite unknown to him.

Jedova pushed the thoughts of Xurego away. That time was a time long-gone. Though it had not been verified, though their bond had snapped violently into pieces a long time ago, Jedova did have a feeling that his former Master had already died. _No. He died back when those people of "Matrix" group used us as guinea pigs for their mind control device. He went mad and never became himself again. That's when he died_ , he then thought. Painful memories washed over him. Now, when all of that came back to his mind, he could once again hear his Master-gone-mad blaming him for what had happened. And he could not silence that voice.

Rustle came from behind Jedova and the Jedi Master now noticed that Degu had followed him. He was just about to remind the Padawan that he had told clearly that he wanted to be alone, but Degu said, "I know, Master. I just wish to know if someone tries to attack you."

Jedova did not say anything. He shut the presence of the young man out of his mind and pursued to meditate. He had to clear his mind after this turmoil which had swept across the bond between him and Degu.

More rustle came but this time it was not caused by Degu.  
"Well, well, well, look who are here." It was the big goon of Hopeakuu.  
"What do you want?" Degu asked, taking his lightsaber from his utility belt.  
"Chill out, kiddo, not gonna take your Master away from ya this time," the goon answered, raising his hands in a complaisant way.

Jedova opened his eyes but did not turn to look at the goon.  
"What do you want?" he asked, sounding calmer than he was.  
"Just some, ya know, bargainin'," the goon told.  
"For what?" Jedova asked.  
"Some people did kinda notice ya havin' some kinda trouble with this kiddo here. So, what if we take him off your hands?" the goon suggested.  
" _WHAT?!_ " Degu exclaimed. The suggestion was outrageous!

Jedova turned to look directly into the eyes of the criminal. His eyes were flaming now.  
"No deal," he said coldly. Degu felt relief because he had not felt the complete certainty on Jedova declining as would have just a couple of hours ago.  
"Really? Ya did have some kinda fight, didn't ya?" the goon noted.  
"It is none of your business," Jedova said, keeping his cold voice as he walked to Degu's side just in case that the goon would try to catch the Padawan. "He is my apprentice and I am not letting a petty criminal take him away just because we had a disagreement."  
"Oh well, if ya are sure," the goon said and shrugged. "My buddies and I are staying here for a while so if ya change your mind, ya know where to look for. But don't ya even dare to meddle with us or ya will get real hurt."

The goon then turned his back on the Jedi and walked away.  
"Master... I really appreciate that," Degu said, but Jedova just returned to the spot he had walked from.  
"You are not my property so I am not in the position to sell or give you away to criminals as if you were just an item or a droid. But as your Master I do forbid you on joining them," Jedova said with the same cold voice.  
"I would never join them! You know that!" Degu exclaimed. This new lack of trust hurt him deeply.

Jedova did not answer. With no trust, it would be as good as if he did not know anything about his Padawan at all.  
"Master... Please let me at least explain myself," Degu begged, taking a couple of steps closer to his Master. But as he did not receive any answer, he stopped, now trying to restrain tears and more begging as they tried to come out.

Degu lowered his gaze and looked down at the grass. All the time before this he had not thought about the consequences of his secrecy becoming revealed. And now the consequences had bashed him right at his face and heart, and there seemed to be no way to regain Jedova's trust.

 _What have I done?_

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	3. Chapter 3

_In the next morning_

Degu looked at the bed on the other side of the room. Jedova was still asleep. Degu himself had not slept at all; he could not sleep. Not after what had happened. His mind had been circling around what he should try to say and the cold voice and gaze of his Master.

Degu wanted to wake Jedova up and force the man to listen to his words. But it would not work. It would only make matters worse and Degu knew it.

All he could do was just wait for his Master to wake up and hope that his voice would reach him now that some time had passed and the Master had slept. Everything had always seemed and been better after sleeping overnight.

All of Degu's hope was crushed as right after waking up Jedova acted like the Padawan was not there. No call or shout, no matter if they were said aloud or through the Force, seemed to reach him. As a last resort, Degu walked right in front of his Master, blocking his path.

Jedova looked at his Padawan harshly. Degu did his best to confront it. Now it seemed that he could now get some sort of reaction from his Master.

But before Degu managed to say anything, Jedova had already gone around him. Degu did not realize it at first, but as a very desperate act he grabbed his Master's arm. Then he realized it and Jedova could no longer completely ignore it, he was sure of it.  
"Master! Please! Listen to me!" Degu called out and looked into his Master's eyes, only meeting the same cold glare.

Without still saying anything, Jedova shook his arm off Degu's hold and left the room as if nothing had happened. Tears forced themselves to come out of the Padawan's eyes and this time Degu gave into quiet crying. He could take coldness and distance but the feeling of being utterly ignored by the person he saw as a father figure hurt him too much to be endured.

Some part of Jedova felt like he was being a very bad person for shunning his Padawan away like that. He pushed that feeling aside and contacted the Jedi Council, explaining the situation about looking for Lucian.  
"So there is nothing to be found?" asked T'un.  
"Unfortunately no. It seems that Lucian has left on her own," Jedova told. "And I feel that she is not coming back."  
"Something troubles you, does it, Jedova?" asked Reg Tug.  
"Hopeakuu's men, who were on Ec Pand two years ago, have been staying nearby. I don't know what they are up to," Jedova told. He was not in the mood of telling about what had happened between him and Degu last night.  
"What about Degu? He is not with you?" Reg Tug asked.  
"I'm here," Degu said, walking to his Master's side, and bowed to the small holograms of the Council members. "Good morning, Masters."  
"Tired, you look. Searching for criminals at night, have you been again?" Yoda asked.  
"Actually not this time, Master Yoda," Degu said and the corner of his mouth twitched weakly. _How could he do even that with his terms with his Master in their current bad contidion?_ "I just couldn't sleep."

Yoda seemed suspecting.  
"On that very planet, you and Lucian tore apart. Right, that was?" he asked Jedova.  
"Yes, it was," Jedova answered. The conversation was now becoming displeasing.  
"Hope I do, that not the same mistake now you will commit," Yoda told.

Jedova felt shivers coming down his back. Master Yoda did not show it, but something in his tone made it sound like he knew more than he said.  
"I... do not think there will be a reason for doing it," Jedova said carefully, considering his words carefully and trying not to lie to the Grand Master.  
"Lucian is gone, but I got the picture that Hopeakuu is up to something," Thame Cerulian noted.  
"Yes, as far as we heard, there is a group staying here for a while. One actually came to warn us from meddling with their business," Jedova explained.  
"If up to something they are, investigate it, you should," Master Yoda noted.

Jedova groaned inwardly. _Not again!_ He did not want another mission on Jaminere to prolong. He just wanted to get off the planet to somewhere peaceful to ponder his next move on the case of him and Degu. But he did not want the Council to intervene with it, so he would not have been too happy to return to Coruscant, either. However, he only nodded and said, "As you wish."  
"So a new objective on Jaminere you now have," Master Yaddle said, smiling.  
"May the Force be with you," said Thame Cerualian said. The two Jedi bowed and the transmission ended.

"Troubled, he looked," Master Yaddle noted.  
"It seemed to me that he had some sort trouble with Degu," Reg Tug noted.  
"Should we intervene? We didn't on Lucian's case and you see now what has happened," asked Litor Mi.  
"Know this situation, Jedova does. Count on him and his Padawan on Jaminere we should. If prolong it does, intervene we must," Master Yoda noted. "When here they are, decide we shall."

"So, we are staying here," Degu noted. He had noticed how firmly Jedova had kept their personal trouble away from being noticed and he decided to play along as long as there was someone to witness it. "What's our next move?"  
"Our next move is to find those goons unnoticeably," Jedova informed bluntly. "Let's get going."  
"Ok," Degu said.

Jedova left and Degu followed his Master, now noticing how close to him Jedova strived to stay. No one noticed it, but something in Jedova's distance to him felt invasive to him. Degu could nearly taste the utter lack of trust in the air between them.

He pushed it aside and concentrated on noticing any criminals they were looking for. The two Jedi noticed one at the same time; it was the goon from yesterday and Ec Pand. Jedova put his hand on Degu's shoulder.

Degu turned to look at his Master who still looked at the criminal. The way Jedova kept his hold of his Padawan was nearly protective, keeping the apprentice in safety, but Degu could feel the distrust behind it, yet he took a firm hold of his Master's hand, hoping to reassure his Master even slightly about his trustworthiness.

For the first time in the morning Jedova truly minded him, turning to look at the Padawan. Jedova's very slightly curious gaze met Degu's determined gaze. Something softened in the Padawan's gaze as he suddenly met something else than coldness and ignoring in his Master. Much to Jedova's surprise, Degu shifted a bit and leaned to his Master's side, just enough for them to feel each other's contact. Jedova moved his hand across Degu's back to the other shoulder to keep the Padawan close to him even better.

Degu wanted to apologize once again but he did not want to shatter the fragile moment. One word would break it and turn them apart from each other once again.

Then the criminal left and the two Jedi broke from each other, as if suddenly realizing the time and place, and followed the criminal from a good distance. Jedova, now even more unsure of what he should think about his Padawan, returned back to his earlier distance. Degu noticed this and felt defeated. _It had not worked after all._

They went to a dark alley as they followed the criminal. It was an empty and filthy alley and just wide enough for the two Jedi to walk side by side. Degu did not feel very assured by his Master's proximity, but at least he now knew that his Master did pay attention to him if needed.

Unfortunately, _if needed_ was a very narrow concept in this case, Degu grudgingly thought. He felt his Master's arm sweep his from time to time as they went on. It was not intentional, just out of the lack of room.

It seemed that the criminal had noticed that he was being followed as he suddenly left to another alley very swiftly. Jedova and Degu hastened their pace but as they got to the alley the criminal had gone to, they noticed many more alleys starting from there.

The track was lost once again. The darkness and silence felt menacing to Jedova and without making a voice he motioned his Padawan that they were coming back the way they came from. He was nearly waiting for a group of thugs waiting for them halfway back but there was no one else except them and a couple of rats there. They had been left alone. For this time, at least, Jedova mused. He knew that something would happen to them if they continued to investigate.

Suddenly an odd tickling reached the two Jedi's minds and they noticed pieces of carbonite falling right towards them. Jedova pushed Degu out of their way before backing away himself; this cost him the couple of seconds he would have needed to avoid one chunk hitting his forehead. With odd sparks flying across his vision, Jedova fell to the darkness of unconsciousness.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	4. Chapter 4

"Master!" Degu shouted and rushed to catch Jedova before the Master would hit his head to the ground. More pieces of carbonite still fell and Degu half dragged, half carried his Master out of their range. Then he turned to see how bad damage Jedova had gotten.

The Jedi Master's skin had partly broken from the spot the carbonite chunk had hit from the both sides of the hairline. The bleeding was not very rapid but Degu felt concerned about the possibility of concussion or some other brain injury. No more carbonite seemed to come down, but the Padawan did not trust it, so he lifted his Master and started to carry him to the first-aid station he had noticed on the way as they had followed the criminal.

Some passerby noticed the two Jedi and a man came to help Degu carry Jedova.  
"Thank you," Degu said. He had been proud of his strength but as he had been carrying his unconscious Master for a short while, he had suddenly lost that proudness. The pride of the youth was always crushed by the world around them and their own smallness and weakness in it.

The man left right after they had gotten to the first-aid station. Degu shortly explained what had happened. Luckily it did not take very long after that for Jedova to regain consciousness.  
"Just where am I?" he asked, aggravated to once again find himself from a place different from where he remembered to have been last.  
"At the local first-aid station. You got badly hit by a piece of carbonite," Degu said.

Jedova touched his forehead and the bandage on it.  
"They told me that they are nearly out of bacta at the moment and they need the remaining for more serious cases," Degu told.  
"Did you carry me here all by yourself?" Jedova asked.  
"I got some help after I got out of the alley. But the man who helped left immediately after we got here," Degu answered. "I hardly managed to thank him, he was that quick on leaving."

Jedova nodded. As he had come to full consciousness, his sense of pain returned and he could feel a strong headache, so he closed his eyes. When there was nothing for his optic nerve to deliver to his brain, he could withstand the headache better.

Degu could feel the discomfort of his Master, but he knew that he could not help him. He put his hand on Jedova's arm so that the Jedi Master would truly know that he was not alone. Jedova did not visibly react to it but Degu knew that he noticed it.

The doctor came to the room, having noticed Jedova resuscitating. Jedova noticed her and opened his eyes.  
"How are you?" the doctor asked.  
"I have a great headache. Otherwise I'm fine," Jedova answered.  
"You're lucky to have survived with only damage to the skin. You should, however, rest for the rest of the day," the doctor told.

Jedova refrained from sighing. _Well, we did lose the trail of the criminal already_ , he reminded himself and forced himself to get to a sitting position. Then he asked, "Can I return to the guesthouse I and my Padawan are currently residing in?"  
"Is it far away?" the doctor asked.  
"No," Degu answered.  
"Then I think it is all right," the doctor said.

Feeling relief about getting to the dark room of the guesthouse to recover, Jedova got up from the berth arduously and did not refuse his Padawan's help; his head ached so badly that he could not mind about the latest incidents, and Degu was still willing to help him.

The guesthouse was about five minutes' walk away. Right after they had gotten to their room, Jedova slumped to his bed and almost fell to it. Degu sat down to the floor next to his Master's bed.  
"You should... rest too, Padawan," Jedova said. Degu opened his mouth to note that it was more important for Jedova to rest than him but then he noticed that the Jedi Master had fallen asleep.  
"I'll stay by your side," Degu told quietly. He had not slept for over a standard day and now it was starting to take its toll on him. Still wanting to stay by his Master's side, he leant to the edge of the bed and quite soon he was asleep too.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	5. Chapter 5

_In the evening_

Degu woke up. He saw that Jedova was still asleep, but the Jedi Master's sleep was uneasy.  
"Master?" Degu called quietly, barely hearing his own voice. Jedova's eyes suddenly opened up and Degu could not help startling. Jedova's gaze sharpened into the earlier cold and Degu started to feel down. He decided to try to get a connection to his Master once again.  
"How are you feeling, Master?" he asked.  
"Already better," Jedova answered tersely. Relief partly took over Degu's face.  
"That's good to hear," the young man said.

None of this made Jedova feel better about having the Padawan so near after what had happened. The headache was gone and he could think more clearly now, but the feeling of being offended by Degu's secrecy had not gone away at all. He appreciated that the Padawan had helped him, but it really was not enough to change or amend things.

Jedova turned his head to look at the chrono on the ceiling. It was rather too late to go anywhere outside. The silence between them felt awkward, since Degu usually pointed out something to keep the conversation up. Now he stayed silent. He stayed silent, because he knew that Jedova was not very happy about his presence anymore.

Degu stood up and walked to his bed.  
"Wake me up if you need anything, Master," he told before he set down to his bed and put his hands behind his head.  
"Sure," Jedova muttered half-heartedly. He crossed his hands on his midriff, closing his eyes again to meditate.

Degu did not sleep nor meditate. He just pondered what had happened during the last two days. How suddenly the strong and joyous master/apprentice relationship between him and Jedova had turned into something similar, but only cold and doubtful. Something _shunning._ Degu wanted to make up for concealing the truth from his Master, but how could he ever do that, if all Jedova did was push him away and shut his eyes and ears from what he wanted to say?

Before this Degu would have never wanted to tell about his secret to his Master, but now, when the keeping that secret had caused a lot of damage to them, he wanted deeply to tell it to his Master. More than ever before he wanted to confide in the man, whom he had trusted for many years. The man, who had trusted him until... until this.

 _What have I done?_ Degu swept his face with his hands in mental agony. _What can I even do anymore? How can I ever make up for this? Can Master Jedova ever forgive me for this? Can I even get to tell him what I withheld and why?_

With all kinds of thoughts haunting his mind, he realized that if he just stayed still and did nothing, the thoughts would keep haunting him. _But what to do now?_

Degu turned to look at his Master, unable to tell whether the man was asleep or meditating. He already had an idea of what he could do instead of lying still and letting thoughts harass him. But he knew that in the current state of their terms Jedova would never let him do that. He knew he had to sneak out.

The only way out was the door. There were no windows. Degu got up silently and walked to door.  
"And where do you think you're going?" Jedova's cold, sharp voice made Degu freeze with hand already grasping the door handle.  
"I need some fresh air," Degu told rather hastily, trying to calm down his heart which had gone wild from shock. He heard Jedova getting up and turned to look at the Jedi Master, who looked back coldly and distrustingly. Suddenly he realized he was once again hiding something, and Jedova knew it.

That thought suddenly hit into Degu's mind like a speeder crashing at a building. _Master knows that I'm hiding something!_

Jedova saw the sudden fright on Degu's face and walked to the Padawan. Degu could feel a new level of grimness emanating from his Master and it horrified him very much. Jedova came very close to Degu, who unconsciously pressed himself against the door, squeezing the handle like it was the only thing that kept him alive. Jedova towered over his Padawan, letting his gaze be harsher than ever before.

Degu suddenly realized that he was gasping and that his heart beat so fast that it seemed like a miracle that it had not blown up.  
"Listen, Padawan," Jedova began with a stern voice. "You can go for a walk when it's not night on this planet."

Degu nodded hastily, feeling great urge to dash to other part of the small room and get some physical distance between his Master and himself.  
"Yeah, sure, Master," he said, trying to catch some breath.

Jedova's tense body relaxed a little bit. He could see the cold sweat on Degu's face reflect the little light the room's lighting gave, not to mention the swift gasps of the young man. He had scared his Padawan better than anything according to his knowledge since the early training.

Degu had forgotten that he grasped the door handle. Jedova carefully touched his hand, reminding Degu wordlessly about it. Degu reacted to it very quickly, taking his hand away as if Jedova's touch or the door handle had burned him.  
"Uh... yeah... I'll.. I'll just... eh... try to get some... sleep... or something..." he stuttered and hastily walked to his bed.

Some part of Jedova wanted to reach out to the Padawan and comfort him. But he knew that he had been the one to scare the young man in the first place, so it would not be very reasonable to do that. Therefore, he left Degu alone and the suspicions of what the Padawan possibly would have been up to if he had not stopped him came to wander into his head.

He decided to not stay standing at the door for all night, so he returned to bed, regretting that before it he glanced at Degu and saw the Padawan's daunted face and the attempt to avoid his gaze.

 _I am being a very bad person here..._ something within Jedova's mind chided him. With all the bad memories haunting and bothering his mind, Jedova did not know how to handle his conflicting feelings of distrust and care for his Padawan.

 _What would have Master Xurego done in this situation?_ Jedova suddenly wondered, surprised about how naturally that thought suddenly came to his mind. But even more naturally came the memory of his crazed Master screaming, _It's all your fault, Jedova! Everything's your fault!_

Jedova squeezed his eyes shut tightly and opened them up again to expel the memory. But the furious yet completely mad expression on the elder Jedi's face did not fade away from his mind anymore.

Like back then, many years ago, he once again wondered with guiltiness that felt like it was wrenching his innards churning within him, _What have I done?_

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	6. Chapter 6

_In the next morning_

Degu, after tossing and turning restlessly around on the bed for hours, had fallen asleep during small hours. Jedova decided to not be too hard on the young man and let him sleep. Jedova himself tried to sort out the differing emotions which rampaged inside his mind. Degu called him in his sleep quite often, making the task even more difficult than it already was. The Jedi Master realized that he missed the meditation chambers of Jedi Temple and their peace and silence.

 _This mission has to be ended quickly._ Jedova got up from the floor and walked to Degu, then woke the Padawan up with a careful shake. Degu did not feel glad or relieved at all to wake up from his nightmares only to see his Master's cold gaze.  
"Get up. We're getting a more aggressive approach today," Jedova told brusquely. For a very short moment Degu thought that they were going to clash with each other, but then he realized that they were going to confront Hopeakuu. An idea which, in some elusive way, was not an idea any more delightful to the young man than the other options which had shortly visited his mind.

Degu wrenched himself off the bed and after a quick breakfast they walked out of the guesthouse. Once again, they turned to look for the criminals of Hopeakuu. This time they noticed a smaller thug they recognized from the incident of Ec Pand, and decided to seemingly tag along with him. Jedova even used a small mind trick on him to keep him from shooing them away.

The thug went to another dark alley, not seemingly different from the one from yesterday but the Jedi knew it was a different one. After a little bit too many turns and alleys darker than each other, they arrived to a hidden and decayed complex, guarded by more criminals.  
"Hey, who are you dudes?" the other one asked the Jedi.  
"You don't need to know our identities," Jedova told, concentrating the Force to affect the mind of the criminal.  
"I don't need to know our identities," the criminal repeated.  
"Hey, what the-" the other guard started.  
" _We can go on freely,_ " Degu used mind trick on him before he could finish the sentence.  
"You can go on freely," the criminal repeated obediently.

The two Jedi passed on.  
"Sometimes your ability to use mind trick worries me," Jedova muttered. Degu felt the distrust sting his heart with both shock and hurt. Now they formed anger within him.  
"You are the one who taught me to use it so well, Master!" he hissed, offended by the sentence. Jedova glared at him shortly and turned to look forward, saying, "Let's find out what these thugs want and then leave."  
"Well sure, that's what we came for, right?" Degu grumbled, earning another glare from his Master. Yet this glare was one he completely ignored. At first the distrust had only hurt him, but now it also offended and aggravated him more and more greatly as it kept on. Anger felt like it was liquid lava within him.

The complex was convoluted and lively, and the two Jedi had to stay in the shadows as much as possible in order to avoid being noticed. Not all of these criminals were weak-minded enough for Jedi mind tricks to work on them.  
"Master, as far as I know by experience and what I've read, I think they have put their intel center to the farthest part from any entrance," Degu whispered. Jedova did not react or take it into account. He just concentrated on looking for the next opening to go on.  
"We've noticed some entrances and by thinking in accord to their positions and the normal positioning, the intel center is most likely somewhere northwest from our position," Degu kept on, ignoring the fact that his Master was ignoring him once again. Jedova still did not react.  
"Master? _Master!_ Did you even listen to what I said?" Degu hissed, feeling anger boil his insides. He knew that he knew a lot about this subject and yet his Master chose to ignore him.  
"These people may not act according to that 'normal positioning' of yours," Jedova mumbled.  
"It's basic criminal psychology!" Degu hissed with fury now rising to his voice. "And besides, why not give it a try? There's already an opening to northwest for us!"

Jedova glared at his Padawan, displeased about the tone of the young man, then looked to northwest to see that Degu was right about at least one thing: there was an opening to that direction. With a snort, he left towards the next shadow, making sure that Degu followed him. Rage was taking over the remains of their bond, but Jedova ignored it; he, after silencing most of the bond and keeping distance to the enraged Padawan, was invulnerable to that anger, so he thought.

The buildings seemed mostly the same as the two Jedi kept on. Then, as they stopped to wait for another opening to come so that they could cross the road unnoticed, Degu's attention was drawn to one particular building; this building had a lot of guards on one entrance.  
"Master, look there. There must be something important if there is so many guards there!" Degu noted and carefully pointed to the building. Jedova looked reluctantly to the building. It did not seem too odd to him. There were many guards and that was it to him.  
"We're too deep in this complex. Let's not draw attention to ourselves," he then said.  
"We could sneak in and have a look. It's not like these dudes would have so many guards there for nothing!" Degu persisted.  
"They seem to be tough enough to be unaffected by mind trick," Jedova growled.  
"Who said we need to use the entrance?" Degu asked and pointed up into the air. "You taught me that entrance is not the only way to get into a building, Master."

Jedova glared at his Padawan once again. Degu crossed his arms, now facing the glare with slowly growing anger. To him, anger felt like the only way to withstand the resentment of the Jedi Master who used to care about him and listen to him. Now it seemed like the Jedi Master he had known had been replaced with a stubborn jerk who wanted to do things his way and resented anyone and anything with a different idea for the next action.

Jedova scoffed quietly, earning a sudden glance from a couple of passerby who, luckily, did not pay too much attention and went on. After them there came an opening for the two Jedi to go and Jedova left to his own way. Degu, feeling offended more than ever about being ignored like that, however, went to his own way and started to climb up the strongest climber plant he found up to the window of the well-guarded building.

Jedova just walked on and did not even notice that his Padawan was following him no more.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	7. Chapter 7

Degu opened the window with some help from the Force and got in. He noticed that he had arrived into a storage room. He snatched a mask from there and changed his robe to an indifferent coat. He tied his Padawan braid into a knot and hid it behind his ear and mask. After hiding his lightsaber under his overtunic, he was ready to go undercover.

As soon as he got out of the storage room, a patrolling guard stopped him.  
"Hey, shortie, who are you?" the guard asked.  
"My outer identity is encrypted. You can call me that. The big boss Nara sent me here to get into business. My duty is to track intel and report to him directly," Degu answered, making sure he kept his voice level yet strong.  
"So who in the galaxy are you in general?" the guard asked, puzzled.  
"It is not part of your duty to know that," Degu told arrogantly, tacitly making clear that his rank was much higher than that of the mere guard in front of him. "Now, why don't you escort me to the intel control room?"  
"Sure, of course, sir," the guard saluted. "This way."

The room was not far away but it had foolproof locking mechanisms. The guard opened it up quickly.  
"What is it?" asked a data tracker.  
"You got someone sent by boss Nara to track the intel. He reports to Nara himself," the guard told.  
"Oh really?" asked the leading data tracker, who approached to two comers. "I haven't been reported about anyone coming here."  
"Mastermind himself does not report to you," Degu noted coolly.  
"What's your identity, anyways? No ID card?" the leader, a tall and slim man, asked.  
"My duty is one so eminent that Mastermind has decided to keep my identity blank. From now on, you report to me. And," Degu told and raised his voice, "if someone has to address me, you shall call me Encrypted. Is that understood by everyone?"  
"Yes sir!" came in disharmony from all around the room.  
"Good. Now keep up the good work," Degu told and walked to the middle of the room, where the leader tracker had been standing. The guard left and the slim man went near him, staying behind him like one on a lower rank was supposed to. He was much taller than Degu, yet Degu kept a haughtier posture than the tall man. Now he was the king of this room.

Degu felt glad that he had gotten so much information about Hopeakuu lately. With it, he could now gather information even more and help the mission of his and his Master's. Feeling proudness different from the proudness he had ever felt in the past – it was something more passionate – he shrugged off the small shreds of the remaining connection between him and his Master.

Jedova stopped, frustrated that he did not find the way out. He suddenly realized that Degu had been surprisingly quiet after passing that well-guarded building.

He turned to look at his Padawan only to realize that the reason he had not heard the young man talk was the simple fact that he was not there with him!  
"For the love of the Force!" he yelled out in rage. Now he was noticed.  
"Hey, an intruder!" a criminal shouted.  
"Blast him!" right after that many blaster bolts came at Jedova, who defended himself with his lightsaber.  
"It's a Jedi!" a scream came.  
"Contact the center!" someone shouted.

Jedova could not believe this. He ran to a darker street, hearing more shouts and yelling. He could not stay there for long.

Degu had to handle it by himself.

"Encrypted sir!" came a shout.  
"What is it?" Degu asked.  
"Alarm! A Jedi has infiltrated our complex!" a tracker told.  
"Catch him and bring him to me!" Degu told. He knew more than well that it was Jedova. He also knew that he had to stay in character.  
"Workers, this is base. High command has given the command to catch the Jedi and bring him here!" the tracker informed.  
"Copy that. But that Jedi has a huge lightsaber! We can't get close!" a voice came over the comm. channel. Degu marched there with long, noble steps.  
"Worker, this in High intel agent Encrypted. Hit the Jedi with blaster bolts in order to weaken him. Disarm him as fast as possible but make sure you don't kill him," Degu told to the criminal over the comlink with a strong voice. "I want him _alive._ "  
"Copy that, sir! We'll do our best!" came the answer.  
"And _please_ try to avoid casualties. It's a true pain to find new people on these days especially if the information about Jedi infiltrating our place spreads. Those oh-so-mighty so-called protectors of peace tend to scare people in our field," Degu told with a highly dramatic tone.  
"Yes, sir! Over," the comm. channel silenced.

Jedova ran forcibly past through an entrance and fled to the crowd. He could not believe that he had just abandoned a young man into a complex crowded with criminals. _Oh well, I told him to stay with me and he disobeyed. It's not my fault if he gets captured_ , a spiky voice growled inside his head.

"Sir, I am very disappointed to report that the Jedi managed to escape," informed the guard on the entrance Jedova had used to flee.  
"Garh, Jedi! Track him down! He must have a place to go to!" Degu shouted out, playing aggravated by this. "Find him and bring him to me as unnoticeably as possible! I don't want a dozen of more Jedi to come turning and twisting places as they try to find their fellow after a random passerby reports about seeing a Jedi dragged somewhere by our people!"  
"Y-yes sir!" came many shouts from the room and over the comm. channel.  
"Get to work already!" Degu snapped.  
"Yes sir!" came the same answers. Degu stayed to stand in the middle of the room and crossed his hands behind his back, taking deep breaths and seemingly calming down after yelling. He did feel a small sting of remorse for putting criminals on his Master's tail, but he knew that it was necessary for him to keep himself out of any suspicions.

Jedova snuck to the guesthouse and tried to contact Degu through the comlink. Degu's own comlink was utterly muffled and it did not receive anything. Jedova sighed and calmed himself to find the small strings which still persisted between himself and his Padawan. There was nothing, except... darkness.

This darkness was not one of unconsciousness. It was more like... More like...

Jedova opened his eyes when he realized what it was like: _The Dark side of the Force..._

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	8. Chapter 8

Jedova knew he could not go back there. And as far as he could sense, it seemed like Degu had joined Hopeakuu willingfully.

 _His own Padawan had utterly betrayed him for good._

Jedova felt enraged by this. He had not been this angry to any of his Padawans ever since Lucian's affair. Degu had been warned about all of this and now the young man had left his own Master for dead! He couldn't even believe this. _How could he!?_ was the furious thought inside of his head. _How could Degu do such a thing to me after all this!?_

 _After all this..._

 _After all this..._

 _After all this he had done to him..._

 _After all the shunning he had done to him..._

 _After all the ignoring he had done to him..._

 _After all the glares he had done to him..._

 _After everything he had done to him...Degu had had enough and abandoned him to find something better..._

 _To find someone better..._

Jedova buried his face to his palms. The tears tried to come through and the man did not find the strength to hold them. This was all his fault. If he just had listened to Degu and not pushed the Padawan away like that, this could have necessarily never happened. Degu had found a way out of the misery he had put on him. Jedova now knew that he deserved to be left for dead like that. He did not deserve to train a trustworthy Padawan. He did not deserve any of it at all...

Jedova could not help sobbing. As he realized that he had lost Degu for good, that he would never hear the young man tease him about getting his life saved by a five-year-old girl or anything else, his strength broke down.

Jedova brought his knees near to his chest and rested his forehead on them, now fully crying even though doing it quite quietly. He had failed once again and now it seemed to him that he had pushed a promising future Jedi to the path of the Dark side.

He hated showing emotions like this one to anyone, but now he found himself wishing that Degu would suddenly show up, completely all right, and come to him, asking what was wrong.

Yet even after crying for what felt like quite a long time, Degu did not come. He would never come, Jedova knew it. He swept his tears to the sleeve of his tunic under his robe. He had to inform the Jedi Council about this. He felt lucky that the hologram was fully blue; his reddened eyes did not look appealing.

A sudden warning of the Force came to him just when he had gotten up. Someone unfriendly was at the door. A calm knock sounded.  
"Who is it?" Jedova called out, struggling to keep his voice even.  
"A friend. Please, let me come in, Master Jedi. I need help," came an answer.  
"You may come," Jedova told, staying suspicious. How had this threat even known to come here, right to his room's door?

 _Had Degu sent them?_ Jedova shuddered at that thought.

A humanoid person, cloaked with hood, came in. Jedova looked calm but stayed on guard. The humanoid came a little bit closer, then dashed and struck his side with an electro-jabber. Jedova did not even get to make a sound when he already blacked out.

The criminal caught him and shouted to the corridor, "Oi! Bratesk, the Jedi is lying here unconscious! He needs help, but he's too heavy for me! Help me carry him to the first-aid station!"  
"I'll be right there, pal!" came the answer and another hooded man came. "Now, let's carry him... now!"

The two criminals started to peacefully carry the Jedi Master away, faking concern.  
"I hope that electric didn't kill him. This new boss seems very strict to me," the one called Bratesk whispered to his companion.  
"Nah, it blacks any humanoid out but never kills them. At least not Jedi, they and their so-called 'Force' are too strong for that," the other one answered.  
"Yeah", mumbled Bratesk. They unnoticeably carried the Jedi, not getting any attention as they had no trouble on carrying Jedova. After short-cuts and dark alleys, they arrived to their complex and brought the Jedi to the intel center and Degu.  
"The new boss told you to get him to the interrogation room," one of the guards told.  
"Ok," said Bratesk. They knew the way there; they had taken people there before.

Degu and a couple of guards were waiting for the two criminals and Jedova to arrive. Bratesk and his fellow were surprised to see how short Degu was when compared to the bulky guards.  
"Is he unarmed?" Degu asked.  
"Oh, yeah, no," said Bratesk's fellow.  
"Then unarm him and hand his weaponry whatsoever to me, then restrain him securely," Degu commanded.

Bratesk took Jedova's lightsaber and comlink and gave them to Degu, who put them to his pocket. The criminals and the guards proceeded to tie Jedova tightly to a strong alloy board which was known amongst the people of Hopeakuu as something that "held even a Wookiee".  
"The Jedi is secured," the other one of the guards informed.  
"Good. Now leave," Degu told. "I prefer ripping off information out of my prisoner... _privately_."  
"Are you sure it's good to stay alone inside a room with a Jedi?" a guard asked.  
"Do you think I'm vulnerable to their petty 'mind tricks' or their nonexistent 'Force'?" Degu scoffed, sounding very offended.  
"O-of course not sir!" the guard said hastily.  
"Then get going!" Degu roared. The four men left the room quickly and closed the soundproof door after them.  
"Now we shall wait you to wake up," Degu muttered and made sure that there were no eavesdropping devices or anything else in the room. He wanted to keep this as a secret.

Some time passed before Jedova woke up. He recovered very quickly.  
"Argh... Hey, what? Where am I? Who are you? And what do you want?!" he asked, looking at the masked man in front of him. _Why always me?_

Jedova shortly and passingly did note that the cool eyes which stared at him from behind the mask looked oddly familiar.

"You're here for infiltrating the complex of Hopeakuu," Degu told solemnly, talking slowly and clearly. "Under my orders, you were captured and brought here for interrogation."  
"What have you done to my apprentice?" Jedova asked.  
"Your... apprentice?" Degu repeated, sounding puzzled.  
"Is he not captured?" Jedova asked.

Degu let out a chuckle and put his hand to Jedova's shoulder. The Jedi Master automatically winced before realizing that the touch was gentle. He could feel the fingers of his "interrogator" traveling back and forth on his shoulder, as if stroking. He looked straight into the eyes of the masked man, now puzzled, and once again wondering how familiar those eyes seemed to be.

Degu smiled, but his Master could only see the light in his eyes. It felt good to get some real response from Jedova, even though Degu knew he was cheating.  
"What do you want from me?" Jedova asked.

Degu took his hand away, walked to the door and locked it up, informing the guards, "This Jedi is a tough one to get to talk. Go and tell the next shift to not come; you and they will only waste time here. Do something more useful!"  
"Yes sir!" the other guard said.  
"Right away sir!" the other one answered. The guards left and Degu put the comlink offline.

Jedova did not understand this.  
"Who are you?" he asked. Degu turned to walk towards the Jedi Master, but then the door was blasted open.  
"Catch the impostor!" came a roar. Degu turned to look at the door, only to see a blaster bolt coming right at his vision. That's the last thing he remembered.

"He's down!" a guard told and the same goon, who had suggested Jedova to let them take Degu, came.  
"Now, let's see, who this 'Encrypted' dude is," he said. He took Degu's mask off and revealed the Padawan's face. Jedova gasped.  
"Oh yeah, your Padawan woulda make a great spy if he wasn't a Jedi. Fooled even ya, did he?" the goon said to Jedova.  
"I-I..." Jedova stuttered. _Had Degu been undercover without informing him about it?!_

The goon turned to the guard.  
"Stun the Jedi Master too," he told.

Being bound to the board, Jedova could not do anything to avoid the stun blast. He, just like his Padawan before him, fell to unconsciousness.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	9. Chapter 9

_Some time later_

Jedova woke up with a groan. He hated getting stunned like that.

The cell he was in was cold, damp and quite dark, he suddenly noticed and as the memories of what had happened before stunning returned, he turned to look around himself, noticing Degu lying on the floor, still unconscious. Jedova walked up to him, feeling rather weak after being stunned to unconsciousness twice in a small amount of time.

Then Degu suddenly stirred and woke up.  
"That hurt," he mumbled and pulled himself up to a sitting position, noticing Jedova. "Master? Are you ok?"

Jedova knelt in front of him.  
"Are _you_ all right, Degu?" the Jedi Master asked, truly concerned.  
"I am. But. _What. About. You?_ " Degu persisted. He wanted to know if his Master was all right or not.

Jedova did not answer. His Padawan's concern moved him and he could not keep himself from taking Degu to a hug, letting out a small sob.  
"Eh? Ma-Master?" Degu asked, completely surprised by this. He wrapped his arms around his Master to a tight hug. The sudden change in the elder Jedi was odd to him, but Degu felt better now when he was not ignored.  
"I'm so sorry, Degu, I'm so sorry," Jedova apologized. "I shouldn't have ignored you like that."

Degu felt the sincerity in his Master. He now realized that he had fled to partial darkness. Now, with no unfair treatment to be shielded from with anger, Degu let go of that darkness and fully embraced the light and sought to grip the mostly severed connection to his Master. It was finally time to tell everything...  
"You as big a jerk as my biological father," Degu mumbled.

Jedova felt offended by being called jerk, but he knew that he deserved every bit of it and more. But he was puzzled; Degu had never even mentioned his father, yet now he was comparing Jedova to him. But before Jedova could ask, Degu told, "I was near Jedi Initiate Trials when I found out information about my parents. I found out that my father had left my mother for dead after she got pregnant and disappeared into criminal groups. I... I wanted to know why my father had done such a thing, so I started to get interested in criminology. I thought that if I kept on and proceeded to catch criminals once I was skilled enough, I could find out information about my father from the criminals I managed to catch."  
Degu paused to take some deep breaths. Jedova listened to the Padawan, slowly stroking his back.  
"I've not told or talked about this to anyone. Not before this," Degu whispered.  
"Why haven't you told me?" Jedova asked with a pacifying tone. He only wanted to know.  
"I... I was afraid," Degu answered.

Jedova could feel the young man's grip tighten around him. It was more difficult to confide everything than Degu had ever thought.  
"What were you afraid of?" Jedova asked.  
"That you would forbid me to keep looking for the information or that you would tell to the Council. I didn't want any trouble from it," Degu told.

Jedova's hand stopped. _I shouldn't have told that!_ Degu thought, fearing that Jedova would push him away again after all. But then he felt Jedova's grip tighten delicately.  
"You should have told me," Jedova whispered. Fear had already crept back to Degu's mind.  
"Will you report me to the Council? Will you tell them?" he asked.  
"No," Jedova answered soothingly. Degu's body relaxed.  
"If you had told me, I would have helped you looking for the information instead of you digging it all up by yourself," Jedova told.  
"Really?" Degu asked.  
"As really as my name is Jedova Wang," Jedova answered, smiling a little bit.

Degu sighed. He regretted now even more that he had not told his Master about it.  
"Do you want to know what I have found out during my searches?" he asked.  
"If you want to tell me," Jedova told. "I won't force you to tell it if you want to keep it to yourself."

Degu felt surprised by this. But he already wanted to tell.  
"For a long time I didn't get any information, but then, about seven months ago, I ended up striking a criminal with a little bit of information. I found out that my father is part of Hopeakuu," he told.  
"What?!" Jedova asked and broke away from the hug to look into the Padawan's eyes.  
"I know. Anyone we faced on Ec Pand might be my father. Anyone we have encountered here might be my father. That's why I've been so jumpy and interested about Hopeakuu lately," Degu told. No words were not needed for Jedova to express his astonishment.  
"I see," he said then. "Did you... did you find out anything when you were undercover?"  
"Nothing I didn't already know. I got access to the highest database here, but the tracks of Ianor Odg disappeared very soon after his place in Hopeakuu is stated," Degu told. "There's no lead to follow anymore. He's alive and a random criminal of Hopeakuu. That's it. There's nothing more in the recordings. If I wanted to find him, I'd have to go on and ask around the crew."  
"What about their operations?" Jedova asked.  
"They have some captives to be sold as either slaves or bounties and they are attempting to sell stuff they have stolen to other criminals. There has been many double-crossings lately, especially after Ec Pand's conflict and your escape," Degu told. Jedova nodded.  
"We must escape here before they return, Degu. They may not maim us but as far as I have experienced, they don't give edible food," he said and shuddered. "That molded bread they tried to feed me..."  
"You are quite healthy for someone fed with something like that," Degu quipped, grinning.

Jedova looked at Degu, who was not sure if the expression of the Jedi Master was surprised or aggravated, and the young man's grin faded. Then Jedova started to laugh.  
"That sure was a good one, Degu. It always is when misplaced like that," he said.

Degu let out a sigh of relief. Then he suddenly realized something.  
"Listen, Master, you haven't called me Padawan even once as we have been here," he noted, looking deep into his Master's eyes. Jedova's face suddenly changed from happy to sad.  
"A jerk like me doesn't deserve to train you, Degu," the Jedi Master told and let go of Degu. Degu caught his arms and looked into his eyes intensely.  
"Master, I can forgive you. We can go on, leave this behind," the Padawan said. "You don't need to leave me just because you were a jerk once. At least if you won't be a jerk again."  
"Degu... My Padawan..." Jedova muttered, moved. The two Jedi embraced each other.  
"Oh, well isn't that so sweet!" came a malevolent voice. Jedova and Degu broke away from each other and looked to where the voice had come from; they were no longer alone.

A guard was there, grinning.  
"So, so sweet when you two hug like parent and child," he jeered and pushed a plate to the cell. "Well now have a delightful meal." Then the guard left.

The Jedi walked closer to the door and saw what kind of food had been brought to then. Jedova groaned.  
"Do they not care about our health at all or have they been left to the imagination that Jedi can eat moldy food?" he wondered.  
"So no meal for us, then," Degu sighed and turned to look at his Master. "Shall we break out?"  
"Do you have something that can be used?" Jedova asked. "I lost my lightsaber under your orders."

Degu grimaced. He had not expected to get caught that quickly. He reached to where he had hidden Jedova's lightsaber. It was not there anymore, of course. Degu's grimace worsened.  
"Nothing, then?" Jedova asked. Degu sighed and turned to inspect the door and its lock.  
"This seems to be an old-fashioned lock," he said. "One that could be easily picked, even. With a little help from the Force we can get it open."  
"Then why don't we get into it already?" Jedova said.  
"Let's get out of this place!" Degu said gleefully.

They called out to the Force and started to turn the lock's mechanism into its open position. Degu felt happy to have his connection to his Master already recovering.

 _It sure feels good to have Master back!_

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	10. Chapter 10

The lock clicked open and the door opened up.  
"Let's go and try to get our lightsabers back," Jedova said.  
"Let's get out and let me climb back to the storage room. It's logical to expect that our lightsabers are there," Degu said.  
"Are you sure about that?" Jedova asked.  
"I got in once. I can get in twice," Degu said. "Never tried thrice."

Jedova smirked as they ran for the exit.  
"I hope you never need to," he said.  
"I don't know, it would be nice to know if it works thrice," Degu said. "I do expect that it doesn't."

They got out and snuck through the corridors. Degu knew immediately their position.  
 _Change of plans, Master! We're close to the storage! Let's get there immediately_ , Degu told through the Force.  
 _Are you sure that it's a good idea?_ Jedova asked.  
 _It's the fastest option_ , Degu noted. Jedova thought for a small while and then he nodded in agreement. _Let's go!_

The two Jedi went on with Degu in the lead. They managed to avoid guards and got into the storage room.  
"You know, Master, we can get out of the window," Degu muttered as he took his hidden cloak from where he had left it. "The vines are strong enough."

Jedova found their lightsabers and comlinks.  
"Now let's go," he said, handing Degu's lightsaber and comlink to the Padawan, who nodded and first peered out of the window, then opened it as there was no one to see.  
"Who goes first?" Degu asked.  
"You, just in case that the vine can't hold my weight. I don't want to leave you to find other way out of here alone," Jedova answered. Degu nodded again and quickly proceeded to climb down. Jedova kept an eye on the surroundings and as Degu got down, he motioned the Padawan to go hiding. He squeezed himself out of the window – his shoulders were just too broad for the window – and started to climb down. The vine stretched but seemed to hold.

Then a couple of criminals came to the area from which they could see the Jedi and started to fire at Jedova, sounding the alarm. Jedova tried to take his lightsaber to protect himself from the blaster fire. Before he managed to do that, the criminal twosome got bashed to the ground by an invisible entity; Degu had pushed them over with the Force. Jedova dropped himself from two meters' height and rushed to where Degu had gone to. The other one of the toppled criminals managed to get a shot on Jedova's shoulder. The Jedi Master let out a short shout but did not stop, only nonverbally told his Padawan to go on. They had to get out of there.

The amount of guards at the entrance had increased. So did the amount of shots, as the Jedi came close enough. Two lightsabers, a purple one and a blue one, activated and soon the two Jedi were going forward more slowly as they kept deflecting blaster fire. Then a strong bolt hit Degu's leg and the Padawan let out a shout, falling to one knee.

Jedova turned to protect his apprentice, but with all the firing concentrated at him, he started to get hit. Degu gritted teeth, accepted the pain and welcomed it like he had been taught, then got up and drew some blaster fire at himself. Reinforcements came and the Jedi did their best to avoid getting hit.  
"Let's charge through!" Jedova shouted over the sound of the firing.  
"Are you crazy? We'll get killed!" Degu shouted back.  
"That'll happen even if we stay right here!" Jedova noted.  
"I'm going to regret this," Degu muttered and got another hit on his shoulder. "Then let's do it and join the Force sooner!"

Jedova deflected another blaster bolt aimed at his back and dashed with his Padawan. The shots from the entrance became more frequent, and after getting more hits on both back and front, the Jedi twosome charged through the wall of guards and disappeared into the night of the suburb.  
"We can't go back to the guesthouse!" Jedova shouted.  
"Then let's find another place!" Degu shouted and yelped as he got hit on his back again.  
"This way!" Jedova shouted and took his Padawan to a narrow alley. Jedova was now aware of where they were and where they should go.

They ran for about a quarter of the local hour, lost the criminals from their tails and went to a hostel.  
"They shouldn't find us here," Jedova mumbled.  
"They better not," Degu mumbled.

The sentient at the counter did not ask any questions. He took the credits and handed over the key card for their room.  
"Come on," Jedova said to Degu quietly. The Padawan was just glad to follow his Master.

Their room was very small but just spacious enough for having two sleep couches in it. The Jedi sat down and started to examine their injuries. They both had gotten many hits from blaster bolts.  
"Now that's what I call perforated," Degu quipped as he looked at Jedova's back which had gotten considerably many hits from blaster fire and sure looked like it.  
"Degu, please," Jedova sighed. He was in pain and did not want to hear any jokes about the number of hits he had got.  
"No, I mean seriously," Degu said sympathetically and let his hand travel carefully around Jedova's bare back.

At first Jedova tensed as he felt the touch but he relaxed slowly, as Degu gathered the Force around them and used it to heal his back. Jedova had taught some Force healing techniques to Degu, because who knew if one day he himself had a Padawan who, in whatever situation, got injuries they could not heal by themselves? Especially those hits on the back which were out of one's hands' reach were difficult to be healed by a Jedi who was not accomplished at all with healing techniques.

Degu, who was still quite inexperienced, took a lot of time to complete healing. Jedova proceeded to heal his Padawan's less perforated back. At some point of this Jedova noticed that Degu had fallen asleep. The day had been long and full of action, and Jedova did note to himself that he missed sleeping at the peaceful Jedi Temple.

After finishing healing, Jedova put Degu to a better position on the sleeping couch and put a blanket on him. Then he went to the other sleep couch and lied down to it, falling asleep very quickly. _We have to report to the Council in the morning_ , he knew, _but we both need to rest first._

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	11. Chapter 11

_In the next morning_

For a short time right after waking up Degu did not remember at all what had happened and where he even was. Then a mostly healed spot scorched by blaster fire reminded him about the escape from Hopeakuu's complex.

Degu turned his head and saw Jedova being still fast asleep. The previous day had taken its toll on them both and Degu felt quite hungry and powerless. He had not eaten since the quick breakfast the previous day and had used a big part of his energy after that.

The chrono on the wall showed that it was 1200 local time and 2100 Coruscant time. Degu yawned, got up into a sitting position and put his undertunic on. Its holes were a good reminder about the many shots he had taken.

Jedova slept for an hour and then he finally woke up.  
"It's late on Coruscant," Degu said and nodded at the chrono.  
"So it seems," Jedova said and yawned. "But we really needed the sleep, right?"  
"Yeah. You snored for an hour more than I did. And you say that I sleep a lot," Degu teased, grinning. Jedova lifted one eyebrow as he looked at his Padawan, asking wordlessly, _Do I really snore?_

Degu snickered and said, "Nah, you don't snore, Master. But you did sleep a lot just now!"  
"Now that sounds better to me," Jedova said. This was not the first time Degu had jokingly said that he snores, but Jedova did not mind it. It was good to have some humor even if one was not known as "The Unlucky Jedi" like he was.  
"When do we contact the Council and tell them what we have discovered?" Degu asked. Jedova noted that the Padawan said "we" even though Degu himself had found out it all on his own.  
"Why don't we try right away? There may be a member of the Council still awake," Jedova said, taking comlink, the only communication equipment they had not lost. "Especially Reg Tug tends to be insomniac."

Degu grinned. He had heard quite a lot of different stories about Master Reg Tug and Jedova working on same missions. Those two were not friends but Jedova had, during the course of time, learned a thing or two about the Jedi-become-Council-member.  
"This is Jedi Council member Reg Tug on the behalf of the rest of the Council who are currently sleeping. Do I need to wake them up or can we have the chat right now with this crew?" Reg Tug's voice came from the comlink. Degu could imagine the annoyed face of the Kel Dor Jedi while hearing the words and their irritated tone.  
"This Jedova Wang," Jedova began, ready to explain it all to Reg Tug alone.  
"Then I do need to wake them up," Reg Tug said.  
"Please wait! Can't we tell our case first?" Degu called out to the comlink. The two Jedi heard the Council member sigh and mutter "I hate dealing with these two" before saying, "Tell."  
"We have information about the plans of Hopeakuu," Jedova began.  
"Then intercept with them!" Reg Tug snapped.  
"Are you sure, Master Reg Tug? We would have to infiltrate their complex again and we just got out of there. We nearly got killed," Degu asked, very worried.  
"If you got in and out, you can repeat the cycle again and put a stop to their scheme. Call the local security forces to help if you need to! Did I make myself clear enough?" Reg Tug snapped. He did not know anything more aggravating than talking with Master-Padawan teams on mission at night, telling them what to do.  
"You did, Master," Jedova said gravely. He did not want to anger the fellow Jedi Master any more than was necessary.  
"Good! Reg Tug out!" the comlink silenced.  
"Well he was in a veeeery bad mood!" Degu noted, crossing his arms.  
"He always is when he can't sleep. But now he seemed to be even more annoyed than usually," Jedova noted. "I'm not sure if I want to know why."  
"Yeah, who knows? Maybe some younglings painted his lightsaber pink or something," Degu cracked.  
"Degu," Jedova said in a cautionary tone but could not help the twitch of the corner of his mouth. The thought of Reg Tug's lightsaber being pink was amusing. "He told us to intercept with their plans, so that's what we shall do, right?"  
"Can we eat before that? I'm starting to be a little bit too hungry," Degu asked and, as if to reinforce the plea, his stomach growled. Jedova gave laugh.  
"Definitely, my young Padawan, definitely!" he said, hearing now his own stomach roar angrily. " Besides, your stomach growling would just expose us! My appetite is not at its best after seeing the moldy bread but I am indeed hungry too!"  
"Are you not always?" Degu asked with an innocent-looking grin, but not only that the joke was old, Jedova had learned to see through the innocent face of his apprentice.  
"Now is that really how you talk to your elders, Padawan?" he asked, putting chide to his tone.  
"No, but that's how I crack some jokes aloud," Degu said, his grin widening.  
"Well at least make sure that you don't crack your face apart with that grin. I'm not sure if even the Jedi healers or bacta can fix that up," Jedova remarked. Degu's grin faded a bit – he did feel his facial muscles scream – and chuckled.  
"Yeah, that would be a real disaster," he said. "Now let's go."

Jedova smiled at the Padawan's positivity. It was good to see Degu back to normal again.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	12. Chapter 12

After breakfast, the Jedi twosome went outside.  
"So, what's the plan?" Degu asked.  
"What's the intel?" Jedova asked.  
"The stuff they're selling is nothing very valuable, no matter what they try to tell their customers. We should go and release the prisoners instead of meddling with their trade," Degu told. "There are just a few captives, so we can get them out on our own. No need to contact the security forces for it in my opinion."  
"In this case I agree. Let's go," Jedova said.  
"Which way? I'm sure the guards on the entrances are not too trigger-happy and eager to hole us," Degu noted.  
"Who said we're using an entrance?" Jedova asked and pointed up.  
"This seems kinda familiar. But now the roles seem to have been switched," Degu said.  
"This time things are going different," Jedova noted and smiled.

The Jedi found emergency stairs and climbed them up, getting to the roof.  
"Have you been in this part of the capital before?" Degu asked.  
"I wouldn't have but when I needed to go after Lucian, I got to know these parts," Jedova explained. "Come, this way."

They went on, jumping from roof to roof.  
"Ya know, I wonder why boss Nara wants to see these two Jedi," came a criminal's voice.  
 _Master!_ Degu called his proceeding Master and stopped to listen. Jedova returned back to his Padawan.  
"They have done a lot of damage. Remember the tall man with purple lightsaber? He's the one who escaped from our hold two years ago," the other criminal told his companion.  
"Oh, so _he_ is that guy! Man, so now I know the smug! Hey, we can tell others that we fought him and survived!"  
"They let us live. It's not like Jedi to kill their opponent if not necessary."  
"Too bad. It would be nice if someone carved into my grave stone: 'killed by a Jedi'."  
"Don't wish that. It may come true. You don't want to face a Dark Jedi. They don't act by the Jedi rules."  
"How do you even know that stuff?"  
"None of your business."  
"Tell me! Have you been associated with Jedi?"  
"I said: 'None of your business'."  
"C'moon, pal..."  
"It _is_ none of your business."  
"Damn, you're an ass."  
"So are you."  
"Hey, thanks."

Degu shook his head, amused by the bickering. He motioned his Master to go on; the guards wouldn't say anything informative anymore. The Jedi went past the entrance.  
"Where are the prisoners?" Jedova asked.  
"In a cell row near the one where we were," Degu told. "I know the way. We just need to get in."  
"I doubt we can use the passage you found," Jedova noted.

Degu stopped. He had not thought of that.  
"Oh yeah," he said. "Well, let's have a look."  
"I know criminal thinking well enough to know that if they haven't brought the vines down, they guard them," Jedova noted.  
"It's been used twice. Let's see about the thrice!"

The thrice did not work.  
"Burned," Jedova noted as he looked at the now-gone vines.  
"We can't go up," Degu said. "If one can't go up, they must go down."  
"Do you suggest that we dig our way in?" Jedova turned to look suspiciously at his Padawan.  
"There is an underground path near the north entrance. I don't know exactly where but we can locate it if we can get there," Degu said and looked into the horizon. "There should be enough roof for us to get close."  
"Then we must move on."

The Jedi twosome spend over half an hour jumping from roof to roof, doing their best to avoid being noticed.  
"This sure is why Jedi on mission don't need to go to the gym!" Degu gasped.  
"You think this is hard?" Jedova asked and laughed. "I've been in worse exercises when I was younger than you, Padawan!"

Some more time passed before the Jedi stopped for a break.  
"We're close now," Degu said. "Just a little more."  
"We should begin to scope for the underground entrance," Jedova said.  
"Yeah," Degu muttered and took a deep breath.

He connected himself to the flow of the Force and scoped through the concrete to find the tunnel. Jedova did the same. Suddenly they noticed the tunnel; it was close.  
"Let's get down," Jedova told and got up, carefully going to the edge of the roof. No one was down there. Degu followed him and they began to descend. This part of the complex was quite peaceful; there had not been any trouble for some time.

The underground entrance was a secret one so there was no guards. Jedova stayed on guard as Degu looked for the trigger to open the tunnel.  
"Quickly, we don't have much time," Jedova whispered.  
"Just a sec," Degu answered. "There!"

The door opened.  
"Quickly, it closes very soon!" Degu hissed and the Jedi dashed into the lightless tunnel. The door closed down and took the only light source with it and the Jedi twosome relied on the Force to go on.  
"I sense a distant Force signature," Degu noted.  
"Me too. It's a familiar one," Jedova said.  
"I don't recognize it," Degu remarked.  
"We must investigate it," Jedova said, feeling a familiar urge to dash to that signature. "I sense that the one that signature belongs to is in need of help."  
"It seems to be deeper than the other prisoners," Degu said. Some other living signatures came into the area of their senses, near the prisoners. _They're going to take them away!_  
"Let's hurry," Jedova said and sped up. Degu kept up with him.

A dim light lighted up the corridor of the cell line. They had come too late; the prisoners had been taken already.  
"This doesn't go too well," Degu muttered. He sensed many criminals bustling around the prisoners; security had gotten much tighter after their escape. They could never free the prisoners and get them out alive. They had to let them be taken wherever they were to be taken.  
"Let's go to the lower level," Jedova told. The Force signature was familiar indeed, but he still could not connect it to a person he knew.  
"This time I don't know the way," Degu said.  
"We can sense the way, can't we?" Jedova said.  
"Oh, yeah, right," Degu said and tried to spare his dignity. "I remembered that."  
"Right," Jedova said. He knew that his Padawan had relied too much on the information he had.

Jedova, staying aware of his surroundings, walked onwards to another secret entrance with Degu following him, watching his back. The Force guided Jedova to the secret switch and soon the Jedi found themselves in a rather better lighted staircase.  
"That Force-signature is closer now. Stay on guard, Degu, and keep your lightsaber close to your hand," Jedova told quietly.  
"Consider it done, Master," Degu noted; he had already taken his lightsaber to his hand.  
"Let's go down," Jedova said, taking his own lightsaber.

The Jedi started to descend the staircase, waiting for the Force to warn them about any possible traps set there.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	13. Chapter 13

There seemed to be no traps alongside the staircase as the Jedi slowly went down. Then the stairs ended.  
"So where's the next secret switch?" Degu asked.

There was none, as they both noticed when the floor, which in fact was a trapdoor, opened and the two Jedi fell to a new tunnel, sliding it down once they hit its surface. The slide was short but painful, and with all the momentum they had suddenly gotten, the Jedi could not get a good landing with or without the Force. They fell to an undignified heap instead.  
"Ow," Jedova let out quietly.  
"Ow," Degu affirmed as he got up, letting his Master get up too. "Where did we end up to, anyways?"  
"Into my domain," said a cold, mechanical-sounding voice.

The Jedi turned to look at the talker. They had ended up into a well-lit chamber resembling a throne room, and near the raised seat the talker sat on. The talker himself was seemingly taller than Jedova in addition to the high place he had and he was completely cloaked with a light silver cloak. A dark silver, flat metallic-looking hat with very broad brim casted a shadow which kept the talker's face in darkness.

The Jedi, after exchanging a wary glance, walked forward.  
"Who are you?" Jedova asked.  
"Young one knows me as... the Mastermind", the talker said.  
"Mastermind Nara! The head of Hopeakuu!" Degu exclaimed.  
"Yes... Yes indeed," Mastermind said.  
"The head of Hopeakuu? You?" Jedova asked.

Then a shape merged from the shadows and grabbed the Jedi Master to his hold and put a blaster to his temple, kicking Degu away.  
"Master!" Degu shouted. Then he noticed who had caught Jedova; it was the same goon from Ec Pand. Degu took a deep breath, trying to not lose his temper.  
"Gotta admit it, that 'Force' of yours is definitely great since it guided ya here. I mean it ain't in the records so ya kiddo couldn't have found it out. It's a great secret," the goon said.  
"Let my Master go!" Degu shrieked and ignited his lightsaber.  
"Hey, hey, easy there, kiddo, everything in due time. Now ya are looking for somethin', right? Ya have all the info of our group here. Why don't ya ask our great Mastermind what ya want to know about us?" the goon told.

Degu looked into his Master's eyes. Jedova nodded and Degu deactivated his lightsaber and turned to the Mastermind.  
"I am looking for information about Ianor Odg. What can you tell about him?" he asked.  
"Ianor Odg?" Mastermind Nara repeated.  
"Yes, he and him only," Degu confirmed.

Nara stayed silent.  
"Ianor Odg... Ianor. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time," said the goon. Degu turned to look at him.  
"Do you know something about him?" the Padawan asked him.

The goon pushed Jedova to the ground and walked past Degu to Nara without giving an answer. Then he grabbed the cloak of the Mastermind and pulled it away, showing a droid-like figure.  
"Nara is nothing but a mere alias, a figure for the real leader to work and see it in shadows," he told.  
"What?!" Degu exclaimed.  
"So you must know something about the Force-user held captive here, right?" Jedova asked, getting up.  
"How nice of you to notice, Master Jedi," the goon said, notably faking respect before he pulled a switch. A pillar disappeared, revealing a slim, rather wounded and barely clad woman with very dark turquoise hair. She lifted her head to see what was going on. The chains which had been tied to her wrists and ankles were secured to the high ceiling.

Jedova gasped as he saw the woman, recognizing her immediately. The woman looked mortified to see the Jedi Master.  
"Lucian!" he whispered.  
"I thought this couldn't get worse," Lucian muttered.  
"A friend of yours, eh?" the goon asked Jedova, whose shocked face turned into a horrible glare when he looked at the criminal.  
"I hate you, you know that?" Lucian said to the criminal. "I thought I hated Jedova, but especially now I hate you even more than anyone else ever."  
"Let her go," Jedova said, his voice hard and clear.  
"Aww, seriously?" the goon asked, leaning to the chains keeping Lucian, whose disgust was very visible.

Jedova took a hold on the man with the Force and threw him to the opposite wall, then walked to Lucian. Degu took his lightsaber and walked between the criminal and his Master. Jedova broke the chains with the Force and the Jedi Knight fell to his arms, grasping his upper arms with all the strength she just could gather.  
"I. Am. Not. Your. Padawan. Anymore," she growled from behind her gritted teeth.  
"I know that," Jedova said, carefully lifting his former apprentice from a rather bad position. Lucian had always been light but she was even lighter now; Jedova could notice the signs of severe lack of food and how pale the woman's skin now was.

Lucian could not help shivering in coldness, but she managed to resist pressing herself against the warm body of her former Master. She was not going to allow this all to break her will to stay away from the man she hated. Then Jedova let go of her and took his cloak off, giving it to her.  
"You must be freezing here," he said considerately. Lucian took the cloak and wrapped it around herself. She felt better as her shivering stopped.  
"Thanks," she muttered and turned to glare at the criminal.

Jedova felt ripples through the Force; Degu was upset to not get the answers he had looked for so long.  
"Just who are you? What do you know?" the Padawan asked.  
"Who am I? I am Nara, the one who acts behind the puppet but works in the lines and makes sure people act like they should," the goon told and laughed. "Oh well, of course it's not my real name. I seriously had not heard it in a long time before this."  
"Then what... no, wait..." Degu started but then he suddenly realized what "Nara" had just said. "You... you are Ianor Odg?"  
"I am," "Nara" answered.

Degu was still, silent and stiff. A horrifying scream broke into Jedova's head through their bond. He suddenly knew that the Padawan could barely stay on his feet, that the young man was now in the brink of losing it.  
"Well hello there, _father,_ " Degu said, spitting the words like they were poison. The last word was truly a poison to the young man, now when he knew more of what his father had done.

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


	14. Chapter 14

Jedova sensed a strong anger building inside Degu and sent some pacifying waves to him through the Force, only to feel the young man smack them away.  
"What's the deal?" Lucian asked.  
"Not now. This is going to a dangerous way," Jedova said and walked to Degu's side.

Ianor looked at the Jedi, surprised.  
"Ya? My son?" he asked.  
"Unfortunately for me," Degu murmured. Jedova put his hand on his shoulder, still trying to wordlessly calm the Padawan. Ianor laughed.  
"So my son is a Jedi? The same Padawan-kiddo from Ec Pand is my son? Now that's a real crack!" he roared out, laughing out loud as much as he could. He did not notice Degu taking his lightsaber to his hand but Jedova did and pressed the young man's shoulder as a warning. Degu did not ignite his lightsaber but his anger started to slowly become visible.  
"What? Ya aren't crackin' it? Ya serious?" Ianor asked after laughing enough.  
"Unfortunately this is where my tracks have lead me to when looking for some answers," Degu answered with a low voice. He felt unable to stop his anger from coming out everywhere it just could get out.  
"What answers? Go on, ya found me. Now ask," Ianor said, giving another laugh.  
"Why did you do this all, _father_? Why did you abandon my mother like that and went to the criminal circles?" Degu asked.  
"Oh, your mother, Maradana... She was no use to me once she got pregnant. I thought she died back there. You proved me wrong, well done on that, kiddo. And why did I go to the criminal circles? Just look at what I've got," Ianor told.  
"Misfortunes and Jedi who are going to capture you," Degu scoffed. "Is that really worth it?"  
"It's _exciting_. And listen, sonny, ya could get this all if ya joined me, became my heir," Ianor said and flashed whatever part of his teeth could be flashed anymore. "Whaddaya think? Wanna join your father?"  
"Never!" Degu shouted. "I'm a Jedi, not a petty, selfish criminal!"  
"Oh, ya have so low vision of me. Too bad that I haven't been in your life, showing ya this all and teaching ya some important stuff," Ianor said.  
"Well I don't mind if you stay out of it forever, _father,_ " Degu said, ignited his lightsaber and jumped out of Jedova's grip.  
"Degu!" Jedova shouted and, realizing what his Padawan was up to, tried to stop Degu.

The young man stopped into air, lightsaber's blade just half a meter away from the criminal, who instantly took his blaster and started to shoot at all the Jedi. Lucian, who was weakened enough to be unable to stop blaster fire with the Force, let out a shout of pain as her arms got hit; she had only them to protect herself from more mortal injury. Jedova's concentration on Force grip flickered for a moment as he got many hits to his body. That moment was enough for Degu to get free enough to topple his Master, get completely free thus and attack his father.

Ianor let out a weak yelp as the blue blade of his son's lightsaber went through him.  
"I'm sorry, _father_ , but I will _never_ join nor follow you. I'll take your organization down," Degu murmured to him.

Life disappeared from Ianor's eyes and the criminal fell limp for good. Degu deactivated his lightsaber and took a few breaths. Lucian walked carefully towards the two Jedi, seeing Jedova getting up and noticing that Ianor was dead.  
"We could have arrested him and brought him for a trial," Jedova noted to Degu. The young man did not answer, just stood and glared at the body of his father.  
"He never was my father. His blood may flow through my veins but it doesn't mean that I will ever follow him," Degu muttered, trying to prove himself more to himself than his Master.  
"That is correct. But if you stray from the Jedi teachings, you may end up to a path as bad, if not even worse, as his," Jedova said solemnly. "You must remember that."  
"He tried to kill us all," Degu noted, knowing the message behind Jedova's words.  
"After you had tried to kill him," Lucian reminded.

Degu did not answer to that. He tore his eyes of his father and turned at look to the other parts of the room. There had to be an exit somewhere.

Then a door opened up on the wall Ianor was leaning to. A criminal and local security forces came in.  
"This is Jaminere Security Force. Hands up, you are under arrest," said an officer.  
"Excuse me, but we are Jedi investigating Hopeakuu's actions," Jedova told.  
"Jedi?" the same officer repeated and took a sharp look on the three Jedi. Degu showed his lightsaber.  
"Holy crap! Big boss Nara is a droid?" the criminal shouted.  
"Actually not. That is just a puppet. The real Mastermind was named Ianor Odg," Jedova told.  
"Where is he?" asked another officer.  
"Right there," Degu answered and pointed at the dead criminal. "Unfortunately, he perished after he opened fire on us."  
"Drat! That's the local boss Draaken! He was the big boss all along? No way!" the same criminal shouted in disbelief.  
"Oh shut up," sighed the JSF officer who held the controls of the criminal's electro-cuffs.  
"What's going on up there, anyways?" Degu asked.  
"We have arrested the people of Hopeakuu for a big list of crimes and their repetitions," the first officer told. "It would have been nice to catch their Mastermind, but even dead is better than on the run for us."

Degu looked at his father, his expression grim. Now, when he knew it all, he wished that he had never found out his father's name. Now that man lay dead, having died by the hands of his own son, not possibly even truly knowing his name.

Lucian walked to the throne. She could sense the crystals of her lightsaber still resonating with the Force, and their signature came from the throne.  
"Listen, can someone get this thing open? I'd like to get my lightsaber back," she said.  
"Is it hidden there?" Degu asked.  
"Can't you sense it by yourself?" Lucian snapped. "I'd be more than glad to open it up by myself but currently I lack the strength and methods to open it."  
"If it was hidden inside it, there must be a switch to trigger the opening," Jedova noted and looked at Degu. "Unless Ianor could use the Force."  
"Very unlikely," Degu noted and walked up to the throne. He saw the switch which had revealed Lucian. Near it was a button and Degu pressed it. A secret locker opened up; there were lots of credits, different papers and other things inside. And a small lightsaber was there too. "Yep, found it."

Degu took the lightsaber out of the locker and handed it to the woman, inwardly remarking how ridiculously huge Jedova's cloak looked on the thin and small woman who was about as tall as he was. Lucian murmured "Thanks" and hid the lightsaber to the sleeve of the cloak as a JSF officer started to go through the rest of the content of the locker.  
"Then, if Hopeakuu is now down, our work is done. Shall we go now?" Lucian asked. She wanted to get some clothes to cover her skin; she did not like the idea of staying in the cloak borrowed by her former Master all the way to Coruscant.  
"Yes, you may go now, Jedi," the officer said.  
"Thank you," Jedova said. The Jedi went past the JSF group.  
"Hey, wait!" the criminal called. The three Jedi stopped and turned to look at him, Jedova and Degu curious and Lucian just annoyed.  
"Can ya tell greetings to Master Yoda and the folk at the temple? Say they're from Askiar Jlak," the criminal asked.  
"Askiar?" Lucian repeated; she remembered that name. "Aren't you from the AgriCorps on Taanab?"

Suddenly Degu realized that this criminal was the guard of an entrance who had known about Jedi, but had refused to tell his fellow how he knew it all.  
"I was, but Norulac pirates happened to me. Ended up being sold to Hopeakuu and... now I finally got my chance to get away from it. Can't tell how glad I am to at least try to get back to AgriCorps after I've gone through whatever I have to for being part of this group," Askiar told. "After seeing and facing all this, watching plants grow suddenly sounds more than interesting. It sounds like the best thing in the universe to do."  
"We will tell your greetings," Jedova promised.  
"Thanks," Askiar thanked. "May the Force be with you."  
"May the Force be with you too," Degu said.

After that the Jedi left. Lucian inhaled the fresh air; she had been stuck in the chamber for too long.  
"How did you end up getting caught?" Jedova asked, as if in passing, but Lucian saw through it.  
"I went to see how Aunauslale was doing. Some goons of Hopeakuu were there and they used an electro-jabber on me. When I woke up I was in the state you found me in. That's it," Lucian told.  
"Ianor told before that he killed Aunauslale a couple of years ago because of an unpaid debt," Jedova mentioned. Lucian groused some foul language, and Jedova, who did not really like it, refrained from chiding the woman for it; after all, Lucian was not his Padawan anymore.  
"Can we now return back to Coruscant?" Degu asked.  
"Yes," Jedova answered and got suspicious about the innocent tone of his Padawan. "Why are you asking?"  
"I got the answers I wanted. I suppose I need to find some other things to get myself occupied with," Degu told and scratched his chin. "Maybe I could spar with Jffk and Boris more."  
"If you wish to replace hunting for criminals with that, I support you on it," Jedova told. "But you know, you do have certain talent on that, so why wouldn't you use your new free time for studies to become a Jedi Peacekeeper? I'm sure that a Peacekeeper like Master Airlin would be glad to help you on that."  
"Really? You think so?" Degu asked.  
"Do I talk just because I like talking?" Jedova asked.  
"You do," Degu told. "I've noticed."

Jedova burst into laughter.  
"Well this time I was serious, Padawan," he told happily.  
"Oh. In that case I must go and ask Master Airlin once we have gotten back to the temple!" Degu said, now feeling excited. He had never thought about becoming a Jedi Peacekeeper, but now when the thought came, he was interested. Jedova smiled; if there had ever been a time when he had been as energetic as the young man by his side, that time had passed by a very long time ago.  
"Whatever, as long as we actually get back to the temple," Lucian murmured.

Jedova did not mind the rudeness of the Jedi Knight; he knew well enough that the woman did not like him. Things had been so for a decade. And he had a feeling that they would be so forever; Lucian got over some things more slowly than her age would let her to.  
"The Council must be glad to have you back, Lucian," Jedova said.  
"We'll see about that," Lucian mumbled.  
 _Is she always like that?_ Degu asked Jedova.  
 _As far as I know, only when I'm present_ , Jedova answered. _She hates me, y'know._

Three Jedi, a Padawan, a Knight and a Master, walked together down the main street of Jaminere's capital. Lucian knew that if it was up to her, the report to the Jedi High Council would be the very last time she would ever socialize with Jedova.

 _The very last time._

 **/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/**


End file.
